Principal Investigator

Marshall Worsham

Imagen
This is an EVI-processed image obtained from Landsat 8 OLI on August 12th, 2018, with a band combination of band 2, 5,and 4. Displayed is the Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama. Warmer red-colored areas display areas of less dense vegetation, while blue-cooler colored areas display more dense vegetation in the area. Obtaining knowledge on the density of the vegetation allows the US Forest Service to better inform its conservation efforts for the gopher frog.

The gopher frog (Lithobates capito) is an endangered species facing extinction within the next century due to loss and alteration of its habitat. With limited active gopher frog habitats in Alabama, it is crucial to maintain these areas. The Gopher...

Principal Investigator

Ian Lauer

Imagen
Evaluating Evapotranspiration and Water Budget Components in Semi-Arid Sagebrush Steppe

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a vital component of the hydrologic cycle, especially in semi-arid environments; water availability can have a substantial impact on ecosystem services, such as grazing patterns of native and domesticated animal populations, vegetation health, and fire susceptibility. Current practices to measure ET rely...

Principal Investigator

Carl Jurkowski

Imagen
Evapotranspiration (ET) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) processed imagery using 2019 Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS data through the EEFlux model for the region of Paranà, Argentina. Relatively warmer pixels of red in the upper right corner and green in the lower left corner represent higher values of ET and NDVI respectively. ET values allow users to determine water availability while NDVI values reveal vegetation richness.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key indicator of hydrological balance across different ecosystems. Water availability is a vital ecosystem service for biota and communities. The transpiration and evaporation of water from vegetation and soil can be estimated through in situ ET...

Principal Investigator

Anna McGarrigle

Imagen
Evaluating Fuel Loading at a Landscape-Scale in High Elevation Alpine Forests of Lassen Volcanic National Park

The disruption of natural fire regimes caused by fire suppression policies, coupled with drought and changing climate conditions, allow fuel loads to grow in the absence of naturally occurring, low intensity surface fires. Within the mixed conifer forests of the Cascades, catastrophic wildfires challenge forest...

Principal Investigator

Katherine Hess

Imagen
Evaluating Grassland Conversion and the Related Likelihood of Fire Disturbance to Enhance Fire Monitoring and Management in the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Spruce beetle-induced (Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) mortality on the Kenai Peninsula has heightened local wildfire risk as canopy loss facilitates the conversion from blank to fire-prone grassland. We collected images from NASA Earth observations to visualize land cover succession at roughly five-year intervals following a...

Principal Investigator

Emily Kinkle

Imagen
Evaluating Methods for Identifying and Monitoring Factors in the Puget Sound that Indicate Eutrophication and Hypoxia

Dissolved oxygen levels have been declining in the Puget Sound since 2000 due to eutrophication, resulting in harmful algal bloom (HAB) events, which negatively impact water quality and wildlife in the area. Therefore, analyzing and identifying eutrophication and hypoxic events is important for water quality...

Principal Investigator

Hikari Murayama

Imagen
Evaluating Potential Sites for Coral Reef Restoration in the Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica Based on Turbidity and Sea Surface Temperature

The Osa Peninsula, located in the southern region of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth. NASA DEVELOP partnered with Osa Conservation to analyze the impact of human activity on vital water resources, with a focus on determining...

Principal Investigator

Christine Evans

Imagen
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived using Aqua MODIS imagery from 2018. Areas of barren/less vegetated land cover are represented in the darker purple while areas of healthier/more vegetation are represented in the lighter purple. Identifying these different land covers assists in determining where vegetation is thriving and where it is under water stress (higher wildfire potential). This image shows the NDVI values located just south of the Alaska Mountain Range.

Alaska’s wildfire season has progressively increased in duration and intensity over the last decade, leaving forested areas subject to devastating destruction. These increases in wildfire occurrence are due to gradual rises in land surface temperature, decreases in precipitation levels, and...

Principal Investigator

Marco Vallejos

Imagen
NDVI and NDWI-processed imagery of the Tonlé Sap Lake region within Cambodia using 2020 Landsat 8 OLI bands 3, 4, and 5. The NDVI color ramp ranges from hues of orange representing built environments to darker hues of green indicating healthy vegetation. NDWI denotes flood stage lake level extent in lighter shades of blue with deeper shades of blue indicating lake low point during the dry season.  Keywords: NDVI, NDWI, Water Mask, Vegetation, Landsat 8

Tonlé Sap Lake, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, is a critical source of fish and freshwater resources for the region. The health of this freshwater system is under pressure from accelerating dam construction, intensifying agriculture, deforestation, and changing climate patterns...

Principal Investigator

Marshall Worsham

Imagen
This is a composite of five 2018 Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS images taken over Tutuila, American Samoa, mosaicked in Google Earth Engine to minimize visible cloud cover. A land-water band combination (5,3,1) is applied to emphasize coastal boundaries in turquoise, vegetation in orange, development in yellow-white, and persistent clouds in black. Annual composites optimize portrayal of the rainy island’s visible land cover in a given year, giving local conservation managers a route to quantify change over time.

For at least the past two decades, the coral reefs and coastal ecosystems of the American Samoan island of Tutuila have experienced deteriorating water quality. Increased levels of sedimentation, nutrients, and other land-based sources of pollution (LBSP) have negatively impacted...